Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister discusses 10 ways locked-down app store delivery models limit choice for developers -- and ultimately hurts users. The model, best known in the form of Apple's notoriously finicky iPhone App Store, has established an entirely new relationship between software vendors and consumers, one some are calling 'curated computing,' a mode in which choice is constrained to deliver more relevant, less complex experiences. This model, deemed essential to the success of tablets, provides questionable value to developers, undermining their interests in a variety of ways. From disproportionate profit cuts, to curator veto powers, to poor security, fragmentation, and hostility to free software, developers must sacrifice a lot to 'curated computing' to get their wares into the hands of end-users.

It's also fragmented by OS version and device type. Even though Froyo is out there are devices that are still being released with 1.6. Google really screwed up by not designing the OS to automatically update. Don't expect the tech press aka Google fan club to report on how many problems this has caused. "\

Your comment touches on a really interesting question. At what point will Google's interests diverge from the interests of the hand set makers?

The makers of mobile phones love Android because it can let them at least try to compete with the iPhone and because its free. But they make their money by selling handsets - not by upgrading old hand sets for free. The hand set makers want people to get fed up with their old version of Android and then buy a new mobile to get a newer version of Android.

Also hand set makers do not want a uniform OS across all hand sets - why would they? They want their individual models of phones to look and work differently.

This structurally tension between Google's desire for a large uniform user base all using the same version of Android with more or less the same feature set and the hand set makers business model of no upgrades except of hardware has been hidden by the initial rush to catch up with Apple but I suspect this tension will get bigger as time goes by.